


Loss Never Gets Easier

by KatieComma



Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-11
Updated: 2018-09-11
Packaged: 2019-07-11 06:16:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15966413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KatieComma/pseuds/KatieComma
Summary: Post-Ep War Room + ShipOnce Matty leaves, Jack goes to talk to Mac about what happened with Zoe and the ship. But Mac doesn't want to talk.





	Loss Never Gets Easier

Jack waited outside of Mac’s house in his GT, radio on low, waiting for Matty to leave. As soon as she got into her car and drove away, Jack turned off the ignition and headed for the house.

The door was unlocked, and Jack went inside, closing the door softly behind him. No reason to startle Mac after all he’d been through.

Jack poked around the house and found it empty, so he made his way to the deck, making sure to keep his footsteps heavy so Mac would hear him coming. Mac stood with his back to the house, looking out over the nighttime lights of Los Angeles.

Jack came up to the rail and stood next to Mac. Companionable silence filled the air between them, and Jack didn’t try to break it. He just looked over at his best friend and saw pain written in clear lines across his face; crinkled brows, wrinkled chin, downturned mouth.

Mac only lasted a minute or two before he turned to Jack, looked him square in the eye and finally let the tears fall down his face. At the same time he let out a gasped sob that came from deep in his chest where he’d probably been holding it in all day. His face broke, scrunching up in grief and squeezing out more tears and his mouth opened but no more sound came out. Mac grabbed handfuls of Jack’s t-shirt and pulled it toward his face like he could hide there from what he was feeling, and Jack followed the pull, stepping up to Mac and folding him into a hug. Mac let himself be wrapped up in the embrace, his arms squished between them, his face against Jack’s neck.

Jack’s heart broke for the kid. Over the years they’d lost people: fellow soldiers, operatives, informants. But nothing like this. Nothing like this civilian college teacher sacrificing herself while Mac looked on and couldn’t do a damn thing.

Mac didn’t need to hear there was nothing he could have done, a million people had told him that already. Deep down Mac would never believe that, he’d always think there might have been another solution. Hell, one day his genius brain might be running back over the situation and actually think of the solution. Jack knew that no matter what, Mac would never be free of it.

“I’m here Mac,” Jack said simply. That’s all Mac needed. Someone to be there. Someone to hold him tight so he could lean in and cry himself hoarse, no judgement attached.

When Mac started to waver on his feet, Jack steered him inside. Mac kept his hands knotted up tightly in Jack’s t-shirt, his face against Jack’s shoulder, Jack leading him blind.

Energy flagging, Mac let himself be tucked into bed. Just as Jack was closing the door Mac’s voice carried up through the dark.

“Jack?”

“Yeah Mac?” Jack said softly, his own voice rough with sorrow.

Mac’s voice broke on the next words. “Can you… stay?”

It was bad. If Mac wanted him to stick around, then he was in a really bad place. Like, sandbox bad.

“No problemo,” Jack said, his voice grave despite the goofy word.

Jack closed the door behind him and crawled onto the bed next to Mac, who curled up and turned away from him. Jack knew exactly what Mac needed; It was just like that night in Afghanistan in the bunker after they’d watched three guys from their unit blown to bits by an IED. Mac had curled into himself, shivering with shock and grief, and Jack had wrapped himself around his EOD tech to keep him warm and help stop the shaking.

That’s exactly what Jack did. He curled his legs up behind Mac’s, their bodies close together, and wrapped his arms around, pressing the kid’s hands into his own chest.

Jack used the tricks he’d learned as a sentry in the army to stay awake until he could hear Mac’s long shallow sleep-heavy breaths. And then he finally let himself give into the softness and warmth of the bed and drifted off to sleep, his arms starting to ache where they still wrapped so tightly around Mac.

**Author's Note:**

> just_another_outcast also has a GREAT post-ep fic of this! Check it out!!! It's called One Choice.


End file.
